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Tension Reported in Dutch Milk Market

NETHERLANDS – Dutch dairy farm incomes have created a ‘tense’ market situation which could threaten the livelihood of many businesses, says the European Milk Board.

A gap has widened between farmgate milk price and cost of production which threatens individual farms and national output as a whole.

This is the conclusion drawn from a Dutch Dairymen Board (DDB) market study in conjunction with the German Office for Rural Sociology and Agriculture which called for an average milk price of 44 cents per kilo.

Average milk prices of 37.4 cents per kilo in 2013 made for a difficult situation for the country’s farmers, said DDB President Sieta Van Keimpema.

The DDB said the situation required decision makers to ‘take responsibilities’.